Colloquia Title and Topic:

"The Relational Racialization of Docility and Danger:
Examining How Cues of Categories Underpin Race Making in Police-Civilian Encounters"

Research suggests that cues of racial typicality are central to the logic of racism. But how are such cues read and interpreted in social interactions, especially police-civilian encounters? And what do they reveal about racial meaning making processes? This article uncovers overlooked dimensions of race-making in the criminal legal system by unpacking the racial dynamics between Asian-descent people and the police. While not typically conceived as targets, racial typicality differences between Asian-origin people may shape their police encounters. Analyzing in-depth interviews with 63 Asian-descent adults from across the United States, I theorize how race operates like a language, whereby cues of Asian-ness are read and interpreted to situate individuals along a spectrum of docility and danger. I argue that police-civilian interactions constitute micro-level racial projects whereby social resources are distributed according to racial status; and I elaborate how intersecting dynamics of class, gender, and anti-Blackness undergird the relational racialization of Asian-ness. This study contributes to a growing sociological literature that interrogates notions of racial groupness and their implications for the study of inequality. By focusing on overlooked Asian-origin peoples, it also forges a more nuanced and expansive theoretical conception of policing and race making in the American criminal legal system.